Modulation of flux-closure polar state for enhanced storage unit and thermal conductivity via dual-probe excitation

Abstract

Ferroelectric topological structures have broad application prospects for high-density information storage for long-term data retention via topological protection. However, the high-density memory component might generate tremendous power consumption, causing the failure of ferroelectric devices due to the severe thermal effect. There remains an emergent issue on the synchronous achievement of high-density data storage with the decreasing influences of the thermal effects in ferroelectric topological domain structures. Here, we introduce dual-probe excitation to control the symmetry of the electric field and integrate the phase field simulation for modulating the flux-closure ferroelectric domain configuration to simultaneously improve the memory storage unit and thermal conductivity at the nanoscale in PbTiO3 thin film under a piezoresponse force microscopy experiment. It is found that the grown flux-closure polar state in both in-plane directions encourages us to enhance the storage density during dual-probe excitation in topological ferroelectric memory devices. Moreover, the increased number of flux-closure polar states and the decreased density of the domain walls can be obtained by using dual-probe excitation. Finally, we figured out that both the double-staircase-like and paddle-like domain configurations exhibit large storage units and effective thermal conductivity simultaneously under dual-probe excitation. Our study gives a guideline to synchronously improve storage performance and thermal conductivity through multiple-probe excitations in topological ferroelectric materials and devices.